<p>i’m kinda curious about the pass/fail grading at Brown. i’ve heard people say that grad schools frown on taking too many p/f classes…</p>
<p>however, my brown interviewer said that grad schools understand the Brown system and that her friends who took practically ALL of their classes pass/fail didn’t have trouble getting into grad school. she said she personally took only one class pass/fail but she liked that pass/fail grades come with personal notes from the professor and are actually more helpful than letter grades.</p>
<p>It depends on the grad school program. My guess is that a good grad program in physics or economics wouldn't really consider a student who had taken more than one course within their major S/NC, but they might not mind if a physics major had taken a difficult music or history class S/NC. However, different humanities programs may give you even more leeway. Most departments, however, discourage you from taking many classes in your major S/NC.</p>
<p>The short answer is: in today's market, you should not take courses S/NC too liberally, but up to around 25% really shouldn't hurt you very much. </p>
<p>In terms of what your interviewer said, the truth is that Brown has changed over time. After the introduction of the new curriculum, 75% of grades at Brown were given S/NC, but that number is now closer to 25%. Thus, it is now probably considered less acceptable to grad schools looking at a Brown transcript to see that you have taken
practically all" your classes S/NC than it was when your interviewer graduated. Still, CPR's (the OPTIONAL 'personal notes' described by your interviewer) can be great, and can be requested regardless of your grade option for a class. The single best item on my transcript when I apply to law school will not be a grade, but a wonderful CPR received from a professor who law schools will definitly care about.</p>
<p>the real issue is whether or not the class is in your dept of study. As alluded to earlier, a PhD program in astrophysics won't care that you took a Jane Austen class S/NC. Just like med school won't care if you took intro to sanskrit S/NC. An S is a very ambiguous grade, so as long as you are getting them in areas outside your concentration, it won't hurt you.</p>
<p>the availablility of S/NC tempted me into taking several classes that I might otherwise have been too intimidated to try... Just knowing I could slide a little, if necessary, in that 5th class, or in that heavily-not-in-my-area class, made me more comfortable taking it.</p>
<p>In fact, I never used the S/NC option because it turned out that I was able to get decent grades in those classes anyhow-- but it was very comforting to know that if I was in over my head I could avail myself of that option.</p>
<p>SBMom, it sounds like you're describing S/NC as an option students can choose after starting the course and seeing what letter grades they would receive. That is, instead of registering as S/NC before taking a course. Am I reading you right?<br>
Oh, and is it possible to change from letter grades to S/NC or vice versa after registering but before the end of the course?</p>
<p>It seems like you would "use" your S/NC when registering for the course, but you could choose to receive a letter grade if it were high enough. I know someone who went to Vassar. They had a policy like that, where you could say "I won't take anything less than an A-," and if you got something below A- it would show up on your transcript as P instead of B or whatever you got. Is that how it works?</p>
<p>I recall that there was a point up until which you could switch grading options... I think it might have been roughly near midterms?... After that point, you could not switch the grading option.</p>
<p>So, in my case, I signed up for several classes S/NC and then a month or so in, once I realized I was doing A/B work in the class, I switched to the letter grade. I am sure others did it in reverse, opting for S/NC when they discovered they were struggling.</p>
<p>Things may be different now but that's how it was in the pre-computer, pre-cellphone days. ;)</p>
<p>Can you really drop a class the day before the final exam? I didnt know that!</p>
<p>SBmom is correct that there is a "point up to which you could switch grading options." Initially, you register for the class either for a grade or S/NC, and you can only change that option about 4 weeks into the semester. For example, for the semester that started Sept 6, 2005, you could only change your grade option until Oct 3rd, well before midterms. In my classes, I hadn't had any papers back or had any midterms by that point, so I really had no idea what grades I would get in any of my classes. Although in some math or econ classes with weekly graded homework you might have a general idea, the takehome lesson here is that you can't switch your grade option up until the last second, and you can't decide that you will have anything less than an "A" marked as "Pass."</p>
<p>Sometimes people take a class S/NC, and then end up getting what would have been an A if they had taken it for a grade. Sometimes people take it for a grade, and later wish they had taken it S/NC. Those situations can be frustrating, but it makes much more sense to have the deadline to change earlier in the year, so people don't just use S/NC as a way of escaping bad grades, and instead use it as a real learning tool.</p>
<p>You can drop a class until the last day of classes each semester. If you drop a class, it will never appear on your external transcript.</p>